This chapter investigates how French political parties are responding to a growing crisis of political representation, marked by declining trust in elites and institutions. It focuses on parties’ proposals for introducing forms of direct democracy and for creating arenas of deliberative democracy, in order to give citizens a greater and more direct role in policy decisions. The analysis centres on the reforms outlined in electoral manifestos, for the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections. This study shows that French parties vary strongly in their support for participatory democracy, along two distinct dimensions. The “top-down” dimension is about giving citizens the possibility to decide on policy proposals formulated by elites. Positions on that dimension are mainly related to parties’ degree of populism, with a strong level of support among far-left and far-right parties. The “bottom-up” dimension, in contrast, relates to a more open form of deliberative democracy, empowering citizens to formulate policy proposals or to decide on what topics referenda should be called. This is associated with a traditional left vs. right contrast, where the Greens, the Social-Democrats, and LFI, embrace such reform proposals. These results underscore the significant role of ideological factors and populism in shaping positions towards democratic reforms.